Hi.

Jan 20 Bait and Switch

I finally had the whey, the dough hook and the time to make bagels this week. I used the recipe from "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter." Actually, not all that time consuming as far as hands on time goes...the dough rises for an hour, you form the bagels and allow them to rest for 10 minutes or so.

Boil for about one minute per side and sprinkle with your toppings of choice....

Bake until golden....

And schmear....Sophie had hers with some gated communitycream cheese. One day soon I will make my cream cheese too. There is a recipe in the same book. Remember I told you to buy that book? That's why you will get a black bean recipe and not a bagel recipe in this post.....but they were excellent and you won't be disappointed.

1 lb. black beans, rinsed and picked over (haha, I never pick my beans over and no one busted a tooth today), soak overnight in large quantity of cold water and drain.

2 bay leaves

1 TBS dried epazote

1 quart chicken stock

Place beans in a large pot and add chicken stock + enough water to cover beans. Add epazote and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cook ~1 hour.

While beans are simmering....

Dice 3 carrots, 1 large onion, and 3 celery stalks into a small dice. You will need 4 links of sausage of your choice...I used a chicken and pepper sausage I got at the Costco "Sausage Road Show". Disappointingly, the sausage road show is actually just a bunch of sausage--the edible kind. Take one sausage and saute with a little olive oil until browned. Add vegetables and sweat until they are soft. This won't take long if your celery was so limp and old that you could tie the stalk in a knot. Add cooked veg and sausage to beans and stir. Slice remaining sausage and add to beans. At this point I added a little smoked paprika, aleppo pepper and roasted coriander. Simmer another hour or so until beans are done. Salt to taste.

I served with this awesome cornbread recipe from Heidi Swanson. I substituted spelt flour for the whole wheat pastry flour and dried Mexican oregano for the herbs. Made for a nice lunch for my coworkers today between baby deliveries. No pictures because black beans and sausage are not photogenic.